The Samsung Galaxy NX is the company's second attempt at putting Android on a camera, building on the point-and-shoot Galaxy Camera. This time the company went with a mirrorless design, but it's as much held back by its Android operating system as it is helped by it.

By Jim Fisher, Eugene KimCamera Performance and Image QualityWe normally test the amount of time that it takes for a camera to power on and grab a shot, but the Android boot process makes that duration excessively long for the NX (26 seconds). Most users will be bringing the camera out of standby mode to fire the first shot, a feat that requires roughly 3.6 seconds. If you're at the Android home screen, that figure drops to a more reasonable 2.2 seconds. These tests were performed with a memory card installed; we noticed that going from standby to capturing a photo was a bit quicker when recording to the internal memory—that took about 2.5 seconds, and the lag dropped to 1.9-second when starting from an active home screen.

We weren't using a slow memory card for our tests; the 64GB SanDisk Extreme microSDXC card is rated for write speeds of up to 50MBps. It's not as speedy as the full-size 95MBps cards that we normally use in lab tests, however. In terms of burst shooting, the NX fared the same, regardless of whether you opt for internal memory or a removable memory card. It shoots at up to 7.4fps for up to 5 Raw or Raw+JPG images, or up to 25 JPGs. It does take a little time to write all of these images to a memory card—about 11.5 seconds for Raw+JPG or JPG, and 8.4 seconds for Raw.

Focus speed is quick. The shutter lag is only 0.15-second in good light, and the Galaxy NX locks focus with the 18-55mm lens in about 1.3 seconds in very dim light. The burst rate and focus speed are impressive, but the time to first shot is just too slow for a camera of this class. The Samsung NX300 uses the same image sensor and processor as the Galaxy NX, but it can start and capture an in-focus shot in just 1.1 seconds. Raw shooters should take note that there is about a 4-second delay between capturing a Raw image and having it write to the memory card or internal memory. During this delay you can't adjust shooting settings, but you can trigger the shutter button so that the NX focuses and fires. This delay doesn't exist when shooting in JPG mode.

The Galaxy NX is being evaluated as a body only, but we did have access to the standard 18-55mm kit lens during testing. Buying the Galaxy NX with that lens adds $100 to its price point. PCMag reviewed the 18-55mm lens along with the NX300, but we ran tests again to confirm that performance was similar with this camera. Imatest shows that the sharpness is just as impressive as it was on the NX300; the lens betters the 1,800 lines per picture height that we require to call a photo sharp at the wide, middle, and telephoto points of its zoom range. At 18mm f/3.5 the lens notched 2,333 lines, it managed 2,448 lines at 35mm f/4.5, and 2,255 lines at 55mm f/5.6.

But distortion is an issue. At 18mm the lens shows about 2.5 barrel distortion, so straight lines appear to curve outwards. Zooming to 35mm changes that to 1.6 pincushion distortion, which causes those same lines to bow noticeably inwards, and that distortion increases to 1.9 percent at 55mm. If you're shooting JPGs with the NX300 this distortion is automatically corrected in-camera. But the Galaxy NX doesn't appear to do this.

Imatest also checks photos for noise, which can add an unwanted graininess and sap detail as the sensitivity to light is increased. The Galaxy NX keeps noise under 1.5 percent through ISO 6400, a slightly better result than what we saw with the NX300. I looked closely at photos shot at higher ISOs on a calibrated NEC MultiSync PA271W display to confirm that detail wasn't being washed away by overzealous noise reduction. Even at ISO 6400 a crop from our standard ISO test shot retains a good amount of detail at default JPG settings. The corresponding Raw file does a better job with color and detail, and while it's a bit grainy, the grain is in a tight pattern that doesn't distract from the content of the image. At ISO 12800, Raw images are a bit noisier, but still impressive in quality, but the JPG engine wipes away a bit too much detail at that ISO for my tastes. JPG images tend to be a little bit muted in terms of color when compared with their Raw counterparts, but you can tune the color output in-camera if you prefer a more vivid image, and if you prefer less noise reduction in the JPG output that can be adjusted to Off, High, Normal, or Low settings. Our tests are always done at default settings, which is Normal in this case.

The Galaxy NX records HD video at 1080p30, 1080p24, 720p60, or 720p30 quality in MP4 format. It also supports low-resolution recording at 480p360, 480p30, or 240p30. The footage looks sharp, smooth, and colorful at 1080p30, and the internal mic picked up the sound of our voices clearly. There was some noise audible on the soundtrack when adjusting the focal length of the 18-55mm lens, but there was no added audio as the camera refocused while the scene in front of it changed; the video autofocus is impressively speedy. There's a combo mic/headphone jack, a micro USB port, and a micro HDMI port, all located on the left side of the camera. The battery compartment features two slots—one for a micro SIM card and the other for a microSD memory card. Samsung doesn't include an external battery charger with the Galaxy NX; you'll have to plug it into the wall to charge, or spend $70 on a bundled charger and extra battery.

Before joining the consumer electronics team at PCMag, Eugene worked at local news station NY1 doing everything from camera work to writing scripts. He grew up in Montclair, New Jersey and graduated from the University...

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